Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1943)

24 20th-Fox Plans 39 Features Next Season (Continued from page 21) liam Perlberg will produce. Director not assigned as yet. All Out Arlene, which Ernst Lubitsch will direct and produce. Anne Baxter has been chosen to play the title role. Film will be based on the novel about the WACs by H. I. Phillips. Something for the Boys, based on the stage play currently on Broadway. By Jupiter, picturization of New York stage play, with music by Rodgers and Hart. State Fair, musical version of Phil Stong's book. Complete score, including words and music, will be supplied by Oscar Hammerstein, 2nd, and Richard Rodgers. Moment for Music, with and about Benny Goodman and his orchestra. Stars and Stripes Forever, a film biography of John Philip Sousa, in which many of his songs will be used. Command Performance, formerly titled "Four Jills and a Jeep." Quartette who entertained in North Africa, Martha Raye, Carole Landis, Kay Francis and Mitzie Mayfair, will play in the film. Others on the lineup of features to be released during the 1943-44 season include : "The Bowery After Dark," "Greenwich Village," "Torpedo Squadron Eight," "Laura," "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," and "Kiki." Mr. Connors also announced that the company would release 41 short subjects inclusive of "Three Sisters of the Moores," story of the Bronte sisters, for the 1943-44 season in addition to one "March of Time" every four weeks, a total of 13 for the year, as well as 104 issues of Movietone Newsreel. The first March of Time will be ". . . and then Japan." The new season's shorts will include 20 Terrytoons, all of which will be in Technicolor. These will be produced by Paul Terry. One •of the featured series of the Terrytoon cartoons will be the Super Mouse series. There will be six Magic Carpets, six Ed Thorgersen sports reels, six Movietone Adventures and two Lew Lehr comedies. Some of these subjects will be in Technicolor and some will be in Cinecolor. The commentators featured in Twentieth Century-Fox shorts during the past few years are to continue. These include Lowell Thomas, Ed Thorgersen, Hugh James, Lew Lehr and Vyvyan Donner, Fashion Editor. Office of Education Wants Distributor for Films The Office of Education in Washington has sent invitations to distributors desiring to handle the distribution of recently completed training films. The contract with Castle Films which has been chief distributor, runs out at the end of the month. Approximately 48 are in circulation, 17,000 prints having been sold. The Office of Education estimates that almost 300 additional films will be on hand by November 1st. The Procurement Division of the U. S. Treasury in Washington is receiving the bids from parties interested in handling the project. Racetrack Gross Big Suffolk Downs, Boston race track, will remain open until mid-August as a result of an extension date, the net proceeds going to war charities. The average daily gross at Suffolk has been in excess of $600,000, about $200,000 greater than previous top figures, with attendance figures remaining about the same. According to reports from Boston, theatres have •not suffered by the competition. MOTION PICTURE HERALD ARMY POST HOUSES TO GET EQUIPMENT The Universal Used Chair Company of Chicago plans to send the Army booth equipment and chairs for use in post theatres in the San Francisco area. It has purchased the Ladd theatre in Ladd, III., and plans are under way for the demolition of the entire building, including the theatre. The salvaged equipment will be a donation. 8,000,000 See Mine Unit Films In its annual report for the year ended June 30th, the Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior, has noted that 7,928,201 persons have been shown pictures produced by the bureau. More than 95,000 showings were given during the year. Ml F. Leopold, supervising engineer, reported that the Bureau's films not only were used by industries in the mining and allied fields, but also by the Army . and Navy. The films, it was said, were of important use to the military in all its training activities. It was reported that 8,487 reels were in circulation and by October three additional films would have been completed. They are "Story of Electric Welding," "Story of Synthetic Rubber" and "Story of Magnesium Metal." During the past year, American industries appropriated more than $200,000 for the preparation of films produced under the Bureau's supervision. The subsidy is used for production costs and copies for Government distribution. The reception of the program by industries has led the Bureau to believe that even greater expansion will take place during the coming season, it is said. A number of the Bureau's films have been prepared with Spanish and Portuguese narrations for circulation in South America. Nine Gold Stars Now On MGM Honor Roll Nine gold stars now mark the honor roll of Loew-MGM employees in the lobby of the Loew Building, 45th Street and Broadway, New York. There are 2,204 names on the honor roll. The nine are Leslie Zubiri, Cleveland ; Larry Schmitt, Cincinnati: Paul Cunningham, Atlanta ; Charles Rigsby, Louisville ; Drew King, Charlotte ; Arthur Goldsmith, Los Angeles ; Eugene Tobin, Leonard Olson, and David Nicholson of Culver City. English Film Is Booked "Adventure in Blackmail," produced in England by Mercury Productions, had its premiere in this country on August 5th, date of its general release, at the Brooklyn, N. Y., Strand. It will go into the New York RKO theatres on August 17th with out-of-town bookings in the same circuit starting September 2nd. Formerly titled "Breach of Promise," the film is being distributed here and in Canada by English Films, Inc. Lebine Appointed Salesman Herman Rifkin of Monogram has appointed Harry Lebine, former United Artists salesman in Philadelphia, as salesman for the New Haven territory. Richard Cohen remains as booker and office manager, and the office will become a print office as soon as additional space can be obtained. August 14, 1943 Exploit Pictures 9 Musical Scores Steiner Urges Max Steiner, Hollywood composer, in an interview with Motion Picture Herald, outlined what he considered a practical plan for exploiting the musical score, which he believes has been badly neglected by exhibitors and studios. Said Mr. Steiner : "Excerpts from musical scores could be played during intermission, run on a disk anywhere from one to five minutes. They also could be run at the conclusion of the program as the audience files out. And don't you think that music will bring them back to see the picture just as surely as the trailers do?" Mr. Steiner, who was born in Vienna, entered the industry in 1929. In 1935 he won the Academy Award for his scoring of "The Informer." He wrote the music for "Gone With the Wind" and scores of other films, one of the most recent being the box office success, "Casablanca." The composer when interviewed in his New York Park Avenue apartment between packing bags and making farewell telephone calls — he left for the coast that afternoon of August 6th — was both voluble and eloquent. "Conservatively speaking," said Mr. Steiner, "at least one-half of all the movie-goers in the country are musical minded. I get between two and three hundred letters a week from fans. And immediately a picture is released the studio gets requests from all over the country asking where recordings or the sheet music can be purchased. Yet neither the studios nor the exhibitors are doing much to take advantage of the fans' interests." Mr. Steiner pointed out that studios go to considerable expense to score a picture, so, therefore, "its value to the picture must be great." "Of course the excerpts won't all be swing or popular music — the music has to fit the picture. But it's not only swing music the public likes." Speaking of the popular appeal of cinema music he referred to the score he composed for "Now Voyager." Two days after a sneak preview in Los Angeles cards started to descend upon the studio written by people who wanted to know where the sheet music and the recordings of the score could be purchased. Recording companies and publishers started making inquiries. And it all resulted in the publishing of "It Can't Be Wrong," music right out of the picture and into second place on the Hit Parade. And when the song became a hit the picture, then on the wane playing second run houses, enjoyed a revival, it was said. Mr. Steiner also believes studios would be wise to have composers write overtures to top budget pictures, releasing the overtures recorded along with trailers for exploitation in the manner outlined. Halt Film Cutting in Two San Francisco Houses There will be no more cutting or other editing of film on the property of San Francisco's two newsreel houses, the Telenews and the Newsreel. The fire department has banned such, activity, after a fire at the Telenews. The theatres have transferred editing to outside studios. Stoll With W. E. 40 Years Clarence G. Stoll, president of the Western Electric Company, celebrated his 40th anniversary with the company last week. At present, he directs the job of supplying military communications equipment to the Allies for his company.